A conventional canted coil spring comprises a plurality of coils interconnected with one another wherein the coils are disposed at a preselected angle with respect to a centerline. The preselected angle causes said plurality of coils to have an elliptical shape when viewed in the direction of the centerline. The coils each comprises a major axis and a minor axis, wherein coil deflection only occurs along said minor axis and typically only along the preselected angle to a further canting position. The canted nature of the canted coil spring allows for deflection of the coils along the minor axis when a force perpendicular in direction to the centerline is applied. The deflection force of the canted coil spring is relatively constant with respect to the deflection amount of the plurality of coils along a range of deflection, also known as working deflection range. Such feature brings significant advantages when applied in applications such as rotary/static seals and electrical connectivity. Also, due to the various sizes of canted coil springs, applications using a canted coil spring may achieve compact designs while producing the desired results.
However, the conventional canted coil spring faces a limitation when a force is applied along the major axis, perpendicular to the deflection force discussed above, of the coils since the coils cannot deflect along the major axis. Generally, an application using a canted coil spring requires a spring groove or a spring cavity to position the canted coil spring. Due to the limitation that the canted coil spring cannot deflect along the major axis of the coils, a spring groove width that is larger than the major axis of the coils is typically required.